Trent Franks

Trent Franks
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 2nd district
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 3, 2003
Preceded by	Bob Stump
Member of the Arizona House of Representatives
In office 1985 – 1987
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Josephine Franks
Residence	Glendale, Arizona
Alma mater	Ottawa University
Occupation	oil executive, political researcher
Religion	Baptist

Trent Franks (born June 19, 1957) is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 2003, representing Arizona's 2nd congressional district (map). The district takes in the entire northwestern corner of the state, including Kingman and Lake Havasu City, but most of its vote is cast in the Phoenix suburbs.

Early life and education

Franks was born in Uravan, Colorado, a company town. He was born with a cleft lip and palate, and has said that doctors after his birth initially gave his parents little hope for his long-term survival. Franks underwent nine operations altogether, the first when he was two-and-a-half weeks old.^[1]

Franks graduated from Briggsdale High School in Colorado in 1976.^[2] From 1989 to 1990, he attended the Arizona campus of Ottawa University.^[3]

Career

Prior to Congress

In September 2004, Franks told Franchising World that he had been a small business owner for more than 25 years.^[4]

Franks moved from Texas to Arizona in 1981. In 1984, while working as an engineer for an oil and gas royalty-purchasing firm, he began his political career by running for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives, against incumbent Democrat Glen Davis, an attorney, in District 20 in central Phoenix. Franks, who was a member of the Arizona Right to Life organization and president of the Arizona Christian Action Council, campaigned against abortion and in favor of tougher child abuse laws. He defeated Davis by 155 votes.^[5] In the state legislature, Franks served as vice-chairman of the Commerce Committee and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Child Protection and Family Preservation.

Franks was defeated in his re-election bid in November 1986.^[6] In January 1987, he was appointed by Republican Governor Evan Mecham to head the Arizona Governor's Office for Children, which is a Cabinet level division of the Governor's office responsible for overseeing and coordinating state policy and programs for Arizona's children.

In late 1987, Franks founded the Arizona Family Research Institute, a nonprofit organization affiliated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family.^[7] He was the Executive Director of the organization for four and a half years.^[8]

In April 1988, after Mecham was impeached and removed from office, Franks and other appointees resigned their positions. Franks had been under investigation following an Associated Press report about his decision to spend nearly $60,000, without getting bids, for a conference at a former campaign contributor's hotel. ^[9]. Later in 1988, Franks ran again for a legislative seat, moving to District 18 shortly before the filing deadline.^[10]. He was successful in the Republican primary but lost in the November general election.

In 1992, when Franks was chairman of Arizonans for Common Sense, one of the organization's efforts was a constitutional amendment on the November 1992 ballot in Arizona that banned most abortions.^[11][12] The initiative lost, getting about 35 percent of the votes cast.

Franks was a candidate in the 1994 Republican primary for the Congressional seat of the 4th District of Arizona. He lost to John Shadegg, who then won the general election.

In August 1995, Arizonans for an Empowered Future, of which Franks was chairman, launched an initiative campaign to amend the state constitution, replacing the graduated state income tax with a flat 3.5 percent rate, and allowing parents to deduct the costs of private-school tuition.^[13] The initiative was not one of those appearing on the ballot in 1996.

Franks worked for and later became president of Liberty Petroleum Corporation,^[14] a small oil exploration company established in 1996.^[15]

Franks served as a consultant to paleoconservative activist Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign. ^[16]

Congress

When 3rd District Congressman Bob Stump decided to retire after 13 terms, Franks entered the race to succeed him. The district had been redrawn and renumbered the 2nd after redistricting, following the 2000 Census,^[17] in which Arizona got two additional seats, and was heavily Republican.^[18] The initial favorite in the race was Lisa Jackson Atkins, Stump's longtime chief of staff, whom Stump had endorsed as his successor. Atkins had long been very visible in the district (in contrast to her more low-key boss) to the point that many thought she was the district's representative. Franks narrowly defeated Atkins in the primary, along with five other Republicans, after contributing more than $300,000 of his own money to his campaign.^[19], then won the November 2002 general election with 60 percent of the vote.^[7]

In 2004, Franks faced unusually strong competition in the Republican primary from the more moderate Rick Murphy, but defeated him, winning 65% of the primary vote. He won re-election in November 2004 with 59% of the vote, the same percentage that he received in his 2006 and 2008 re-elections.

Political positions

Franks is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker. In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act^[20] and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act.^[21]

Franks is a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. ^[22]

During the 2008 campaign, Franks stated that he is skeptical of global warming.^[23]

Personal life

Franks and his wife, Josephine, have been married since 1980. In August 2008, a donor egg and surrogate were used to give birth to their twins.^[24] They are members of a Baptist Church.

Franks is currently Chairman of the Children's Hope Scholarship Foundation.

Committee assignments

Franks serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Franks is also a member of the Republican Study Committee, House Working Group on Judicial Accountability, House Working Group on Waste, Fraud and Abuse, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the DUI Caucus, the Human Rights Caucus, the India Caucus, the Refugee Caucus, and the Education Freedom Caucus. Franks has also been active with Operation Smile.

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
  • Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces
• Committee on the Judiciary
  • Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
  • Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (Ranking Member)

Electoral history

References

External links

• U.S. Congressman Trent Franks official House site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Trent Franks for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Resolution on India's untouchables in US Congress Rediff', May 3, 2007